Unidentified war

Ukraine closed the entrance for male Russia citizens aged 16 to 60 years: in this way, Kyiv fights with the "occupiers" in the east of the country, continuing to declare aggression by Moscow

However, there is no picture familiar from the films about the war: the heaven is covered with fighters, columns of armored vehicles are moving on the ground, infantry marching ... Kyiv claims that 23 GRU officers were detained in Ukraine, but so far they have not been presented. Experts say: we are talking about a new type of war, when de jure has nothing to complain about, but the participation of a warlike neighbor becomes a secret of the postgraduate. The first sign of such a hidden war was the “polite” annexation of Crimea. The second round began on April 6 with the capture of administrative buildings in Kharkov, Lugansk and Donetsk. On April 17, at a meeting in Geneva, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov, signed under Moscow's obligations to contribute to the conflict de -escalation, but the hidden wars are so dangerous that the papers are not a decree. How it happens today on Ukrian - the New Times sorted out

The Ukrainian military captured by pro -Russian activists was invited to replenish their ranks or return home. Kramatorsk, April 16, 2014 /Photo: Mikhail Poyuev /ITAR-TASS

On April 17, during the Direct Line, President Vladimir Putin admitted that the Russian military "stood behind the Crimean self -defense forces." Meanwhile, on March 4, when the events in the Crimea were in full swing, at his press conference he clearly stated that people who blocked the units of the Ukrainian army in the Crimea were forces of local self-defense

The fighters armed to the teeth go down from a height of 6 thousand meters to the territory of a foreign country. On Earth, they immediately change into the camouflage of the country of stay - disguise. These are Russian forces of special operations intended to achieve political and economic goals anywhere in the globe, troops fighting in peacetime. This Russian detachment of James Bonds intervenes when diplomatic methods no longer act, they distract the forces of certain countries from external problems, creating internal problems, swinging the political system of these states, destabilizing the situation, including through third hands. The forces of special operations are taught, created and guided by foreign partisan movements, and eliminate undesirable leaders without any sanctions. No, this is not a description of the actions of the Russian special forces in Ukraine, but the plot of the Russia 24 television channel, which was aired on April 28, 2013. Then no one could have thought that these very forces of special operations would gain worldwide fame under the euphemism “Green men”.

One of the fighters who blocked the Ukrainian military units in the Crimea. He has a sniper rifle "screwer" in his hands. Such a rifle is in service with Russia, in the countries of the Middle East, Latin America and the USA, but not Ukraine. Chongar, Crimea, March 3, 2014 /Photo: Evgeny Feldman /New Gazeta

However, Vladimir Putin admitted the fact of the presence of Russian troops in Crimea to the “direct line”, stipulating that Russia did not exceed the agreement on the division of the Black Sea Fleet of 25 thousand people*. According to the same agreement, the location of the Russian troops was limited to Sevastopol, Theodosia, military airfields in the guard and the guards and several other bases. But few doubts have left: from the very first days of the “Crimean campaign”, the Russian military was distributed throughout the peninsula, starting with the capture of the buildings of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea and the cabinet of ministers in Simferopol on February 27 and blocking all Ukrainian military units within the next week. Although the soldiers did not have shoulder straps or chevrons, they were dressed in a uniform, which was very similar to the equipment of the ground forces of the Russian Federation, “Ratnik”, put into service in the summer of 2013. But if the form could just be similar (the “warrior” itself in stores is not sold), it was more difficult to explain the presence of Dragunov and VSS sniper rifles (“spanoresis”), the “Pecheneg” sniper rifles - there is no all this in service with the Ukrainian army. The presence of the Tiger and Lynx in the Crimea in the Crimea with Russian numbers seemed strange to the Crimea, in particular, the region of the region 21-the North Caucasian Military District disbanded in 2010: according to the sources of The New Times, cars with a non-existent region actually belonged to GRU. According to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, the 7th Guards Airborne Counter Mountain Division, the 45th Separate Guards Airborne Forces Regiment, under the GRU, 76th Guards Airborne Division, as well as the 18th separate motorized rifle brigade from Chechnya, the 31st Airborne Brigade from Ulyanovsk and the 76th Separate Guards Division, acted in Crimea. The 22nd Brigade of the GRU special forces from the Krasnodar Territory.

GAZ 233014 Tiger is a Russian armored car, which is not in service with Ukrainian Armed Forces. Code 21 on a room is a designation of the North Caucasus Military District disbanded in 2010. Chongar, Crimea, March 3, 2014 /Photo: Evgeny Feldman /New Gazeta

"Partisans" from the FSB

In eastern Ukraine, the situation is not so unambiguous: administrative buildings in Donetsk, Lugansk, Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and other cities were seized by armed people in camouflage, which was not like a “warrior” or any other equipment of Russian or Ukrainian Armed Forces, in their hands they immediately had a large number of Ukrainian weapons from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the police department, and on April 16, and on April 16 The rebels captured six BMDs (landing vehicles) of the Ukrainian army, putting a Russian tricolor on them. On April 12, the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov said that the rebels use Russian short -barreled assault rifles of the AK Sobot series, which, they say, are in service only in Russia. The minister was mistaken: if in the Ukrainian army there are actually no such automatic machines, AK Sobe series is an export version of the AK74M machine made under the caliber of NATO cartridges. However, the experts surveyed by The New Times said that, according to the currently available materials from the Donetsk region, it is impossible to judge with one hundred percent confidence what weapons the East Ukrainian “federalists” use: these can be AK-74 that are in Ukraine, and even hunting carbines “Saiga-MK” produced by the same concern “Kalashnikov” (in the past in the past Izhevsk Machine -Building Plant) and outwardly similar to automatic machines AK Sobe.

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“There are many recruiters in Russia, hiring personnel for American private military companies (PMCs), providing, for example, the protection of objects in Iraq or Afghanistan”

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It is obvious that the seizures of administrative buildings that occurred simultaneously in several cities according to similar scenarios would be difficult to organize non -professional to organize non -professionalmies with Russian automatic machines. “These are planned, well-prepared promotions,” said Alexei Kondaurov, Major General of the FSB Major, Major General of the FSB. “For such captures, it is necessary not only to arm and train personnel, but also to reconnect, to contact the police that protect these objects.” At the same time, the fighters did not need to be brought from Russia at all: The New Times correspondent was able to make sure from his own experience that in the Donbass there are many who wanted to fight with the new Kiev authority . “Russia's actions are different from what we saw in Crimea,” explained The New Times, Mark Galeotti, a specialist in Russian armed forces, and professor of the Center for International Relations of New York University. “If Russian experts are around the riots, they rather perform a coordinating function and, possibly, provide the rebels with weapons and means.” According to Mark Galeotti, the planning of the activities of different detachments, as well as the coordination of their actions with Moscow, can engage in GRU. The military analyst Alexander Golts agreed with Galiotti, who explained to the magazine that only the Russian Ministry of Defense has forces and means to perform operations abroad. The involvement of the GRU is confirmed by the telephone recording intercepted by the Ukrainian special services, on which the officer of the same 45th regiment of the Airborne Forces special forces, Igor Strelkov, allegedly receives instructions from the Moscow political scientist Alexander Boroday. (The New Times tried to contact a “political scientist”, but he doesn’t answer calls.) Experts, however, cast the authenticity of the recording to doubt: “Too sterile sound, completely without interference, as if they were writing in the room,” notes Alexei Kondaurov. “Although if these are actors, then they played perfectly.” Journalists also found confirmation of the participation in the operation in the Donbass of the GRU special forces: in the report of Novaya Gazeta (No. 42 of April 18, 2014), the fighters not only admit that they are not militias at all, one of them gives an autograph to the journalist: this is a certain lieutenant colonel nicknamed Bes, who became the hero of the video of the OTS building in Gorlovka on April 15.

According to experts, the GRU is unlikely to act alone. “I think that they work together with the FSB, which has always had close ties with the SBU and which is responsible for the political component of the project,” says Mark Galeozhotti, while noting that it was difficult to explain why, after riots on April 6 in Donetsk and Lugansk, the Ukrainian special services did not begin to operate in the emergency mode and could not warn the events in Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. Noticed this in Kyiv: acting Over the past week, President Alexander Turchinov replaced the heads of the SBU of the Lugansk, Donetsk and Kharkov regions. However, that the Ukrainian special services are actively cooperating with Moscow earlier: it was enough to recall the abduction from the center of Kyiv by Leonid Razvozhaev on October 19, 2012 or on February 20–21 visits to the Kyiv General of the FSB Sergey Conversation, according to the official version of Moscow, which checked the level of security of the Russian carriage, according to unofficial data that met with a meeting with a meeting with a meeting. Feeling after his visit by President Viktor Yanukovych.

The capture of the Gorodnat Delice in Kramatorsk on April 12, 2014 in the hands of the fighters, either AK-101 machine guns who are not in service with the Ukrainian army, or used by Ukrainian military personnel AK-74M /Photo: Mikhail Posters /ITAR-TASS

Ukrainians, volunteers ...

“There are many recruiters in Russia for American private military companies (PMCs) who, for example, providing objects in Iraq or Afghanistan,” a former GRU former officer told the magazine that this department was engaged in a recruitment of fighters both in Ukraine and in Russia. “They work through the unions of reserve officers, veteran organizations, and indeed they have a large base of potential fighters.” In Iraq, for example, the mercenary receives about $ 3 thousand per month. However, according to the interlocutor of the magazine, money does not always go to course at all. “I personally know a lot of Russians, including ethnic Ukrainians who are ready to go to fight with the“ Bandera, ”the military says. “I have two -thirds of the course were Ukrainians.”

At the same time, sending Russians to a neighboring state, Russia nominally does not violate Ukrainian sovereignty: there are no personnel military among them, according to official statements. At the same time, there are more than enough fighters: after the reform of the Russian Armed Forces, which was started in 2008 by Anatoly Serdyukov, from the army, according to various sources, from 200 thousand to 300 thousand officers, including three of the nine special forces brigades, which was transferred to the structure of the Ground Forces (St. Suits and Authorities of the Russian Federation), were dismissed. Most of the dismissed officers were young people who recently graduated from military schools and did not have civilian specialties. Someone went to work in security companies, someone decided to become a "soldier of good luck." Only in 2013, certain parts of the special forces were returned to the subordination of the GRU. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense solemnly announced the creation of a certain center of special operations in Kubinka, where the 45th regiment of special forces of the Airborne Forces was located in the Crimean campaign-it was about it that the plot of Russia 24 was about it. However, according to Mark Galeotti, then it was not at all about the creation of some new special forces, but simply about the next administrative retraining of existing parts.

The United States also use special forces for operations abroad. In the photo - fighters of the United States Navy Seal - Sea, Air and Land) forces of special operations of the US Navy. They carried out an operation to destroy Osama Bin Laden in the Pakistani Abbotabad on May 2, 2011, as well as anti -terrorist raids in Somalia and Libyan Tripoli after an attack in the Westgate in Nairobi September 23, 2013: John Scorza/US Navy/Getty Images/Fotobank

License to war

The recipe for use in hostilities abroad of fighters without shoulder straps does not belong to Russia at all. The first private military company (PMC) appeared back in 1967 in the UK (WatchGuard International), a frantic pace, this market began to develop in the mid-90s, today its volume around the world is, on the one hand, it is worth outsourcing part of the work on servicing military equipment and providing armies, and on the other hand, the CDC allowed by the CDC. The states of de jure stand aloof from many conflicts. So, in 1995, employees of the American company MPRI provided assistance to the Croatian army in preparing the operation of the Boys against Serbian Krai, which allowed the West to solve the problem of the Croatian war, without taking responsibility for the death of the civilian population and a huge number - up to 250 thousand people - Serbian refugees. American PMCs began to receive contracts for the protection of high -ranking officials (in particular, President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai), American embassies and other facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq. In total, in Afghanistan and Iraq in the mid-2000s there were up to 450 PMCs with a total staff of up to 170 thousand people. In addition to logistics amenities, this allowed on paper to reduce the number of those killed in the war: according to American laws, PMCs are not required to report on losses. So, according to unofficial data, only up to 780 employees of one of the largest American PMCs Academi (better known as Blackwater) did not return from Iraq, and the US Armed Forces lost 4423 people.

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“I personally know a lot of Russians, including ethnic Ukrainians who are ready to go to fight with the“ Bandera ”for free

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In Russia, there are no laws on PMCs, moreover, Russians, serving in foreign companies, fall under the article of the Criminal Code for mercenaries. In mid -2012, a deputy of the State Duma from the LDPR party Alexei Mitrofanov introduced a bill on the activities of PMCs, but he hung in the bowels of the parliament.

The sources of the magazine in the Russian Armed Forces are sure, however, that the law will be adopted in the very near future: after the US departure from Afghanistan, it will be necessary to fill out the liberated niche. However, according to the same sources, it is unlikely that the Russian PMCs will appear in Eastern Ukraine: the time is not enough for this. But the United States does not need to adopt any special laws on PMCs: did Barack Obama really mean them, saying on April 16 in an interview with CBS that American conventional forces are better than Russian?

Pro -Russian activists at the BMD captured from the Ukrainian army. Slavyansk, April 16, 2014/Photo: Roman Pilipya/EPA/ITAR-TASS